Some Reviews

*“The touch is rock-solid, the voicings full, and the runs fleet-fingered.  Mlely puts a lot of movement into the inner voices, and he frequently pushes the time in and out the way Cecil Taylor does, while retaining much more warmth than Taylor ever achieves.  Mlely has a voice of his own.  As effective a composer as he is a soloist.”  Jim Aiken, Contemporary Keyboard, U.S.A.

*“Nothing less than luxurious music played in the style of this country’s only indigenous musical form - jazz.  Mlely. . .worthy of the exposure granted our greatest players. . . a rich, complex player.”  Michael Fishman, Jazzline, U.S.A.

*”The genius of G. F. Mlely ... gives the performance of a lifetime on this solo piano outing, and it is an excellent CD for the jazz listener.  RE-ENTRY is solo piano at its best, and this is a magnificent collection of performances by G. F. Mlely!  Five stars."  Lee Prosser, Jazzreview.com

*"Mlely is not one to pin down.  Tatum, Corea, Monk, Taylor, Debussy, Evans.  Despite the antecedents Mlely is a unique talent." Stephen M.H. Braitman, City Arts, San Francisco, California

*"A tour de force of leading edge pianists ... not just another display of awesome technique." Dr. Marshal Stokes, Washington Post, Washington, D.C.   

*“An extremely brilliant pianist who gives special care to developing an innate sense, a touch not unlike the new classicism which characterizes the recent works of Bobby Few.  His sense of rupture more than of discontinuity and his way of sounding notes are reminiscent of Ron Blake and, by extension, Thelonius Monk.”  Serge Loupien, Jazz Magazine, Paris, France

*"G. Francis Mlely’s Re-Entry may be heralding his re-emergence into the tantalizingly perilous world of music.  It could just as easily be talking about a Re-Entry into Earthly experience from a different musical dimension - one that is best explored with an insightful, powerful guide.  Mlely is such a guide, and his Re-Entry clearly harks to a streaming musical dimension.”  Phyllis A. Lodge, JazzUSA.com

*“Unique, an original, somewhat separated from the main-stream..  Mlely doesn’t fit easily into any category.  Yet he is an eminently comprehensible musician.  He commands. . . careful attention. . . a keyboard dreamer, a philosopher.”  Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California

*“You ought to hear him.  A two-fisted, ten-fingered player, Mlely has an imagination to match his technique.  He’s basically a tonal musician, but there’s a great sense of the exploratory in his work - the feel is more aquatic than linear.”  Kirk Silsbee, The Los Angeles Reader, Los Angeles, California

*“A true original, he thrives on his own artistic devices, creating abstractions of Debussy-like warmth without ever compromising his principles. . .classical background to the blues. . . Mlely has much to say, and he says it with warm, refreshing eloquence.  Something of a jazz version of Henry David Thoreau.”  Gordon Raddue, The Independent and Gazette, Berkeley, California

*“Art Tatum and Lennie Tristano are recalled from the past, Bill Evans from the present; all are molded and reshaped into the future which is Mlely.”  Don Albert, The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa

*“Mlely’s incredible technique is often cerebral and physical simultaneously.  The warmth and heart comes out in the adventurous side of Mlely’s compositions. . . He takes the listener on a journey to some fascinating new places in jazz.”  Larry Kelp, Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California

*“The influences I hear are hardly commonplace - Vince Guaraldi’s lucid, blues-based melodicism and Herbie Nichols’ elastic writing and rhythms.  I’m impressed.”  John Simon, The Village Voice, New York, New York

*“Mlely has quite an impressive technique, but controlled to never cover up a lack of inspiration, a composer who knows how to arouse sensitivity, an accomplished pianist such as Phineas Newborn, for example.”  Gustave Cerutti, Jazz 360, Sierre, Switzerland

*"Mlely ... has that annoying ability, like Chico Marx, to make playing seem so insanely easy.  No open mouth, no breathing hard or Bernstein-like tirades: G just seems to stare at his fingers, and his crawling, spirited fingers rush around the keys, finding the blacks and whites with hardly a worry. A delight to watch." Ben Ohmart, MusicDish.com    

*“Mlely - music that startles at first, then attracts, then begins to grow increasingly familiar and pleasurable. . . melodies are never far away, yet the strangeness lingers.”  James V. Murray, San Jose Mercury, San Jose, California

*“Brilliant improvisator, fantastic.”  Fritz Lagerwerf, De Trouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

*“Various jazz influences with a solid classical technique, Mlely reveals himself as an unorthodox stylest in the tradition of Monk or Tristano, whether performing fresh interpretations to standards or his own approachable though hard-to-categorize compositions.”  Charles J. Gans, Jazz Forum, International Jazz Society, Warsaw, Poland

*“Virtuosic, rhapsodic, and original.  Explorative yet tonal, wandering yet full of direction.  Mlely’s performances tend to grow in value with each listen for there is so much there.”  Scott Yanow, Record Review, U.S.A.

*“Pianist Mlely is certainly a distinctive voice on the instrument. . . warm, energetic, and stimulating.  There is depth to the music.  [It] is contemporary in the best sense of the word.”  Peter S. Friedman, Coda, Canada     

*“Exploratory original works. . . through unfamiliar territory, with admirable technique, ingenious voicings, and a generally adventurous attitude.  Four stars.”  Leonard Feather, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California